


The Durasteel Lady: In Defense of Bastila Shan

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture, In This House We Respect Bastila Shan, Internalized Misogyny, Meta, Minor Revan/Bastila, Misogyny, ROTJ Gets Mentioned Briefly, Sexism, Strong Female Characters, Victim Blaming, Women The Fandom Hates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:08:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24061105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Bastila Shan’s turn to the Dark Side in KOTOR shows a lot about her — including some of the most beautiful things about her, and why she is my favorite party member in the first KOTOR.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20
Collections: Gen Prompt Bingo Round 18





	The Durasteel Lady: In Defense of Bastila Shan

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Loss of Faith
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> Author’s Notes: Trigger warning for discussion of torture, as well as victim-blaming attitudes.

Bastila Shan is a controversial character, and her turn to the Dark Side is the most controversial of her character. People are quick to dismiss Bastila as “hypocritical” and "weak” for caving into torture (the fact that no one accused Poe of doing the same, or condemned people shipping Bastila with Malak — while willing to freely launch a smear campaign against Darkpilot and Reylo shippers alike — calls into question if people condemning these ships actually do care about what they’re campaigning against, or if it’s a double standard of some sort. But I digress), but the truth is, if you really look at the evidence, she’s incredibly strong. Granted, _no_ survivor of torture should be called weak for anything, but she has a very iron will. Keep in mind that Bastila’s being tortured with Force Lightning, also known as the sheer, undiluted fuck-you that Palpatine used on Luke when Luke refused to kill Vader and become Palpatine’s apprentice. This is the Force power that left Luke screaming in pain and pleading for Vader to _do something,_ and this is the same Force power that might have contributed to Vader’s death (he might have absorbed it when he was throwing Palpatine down that reactor shaft). This is basically pure agony and sadism wrapped up in one package, and in one segment of KOTOR, it’s shown that too much of it will kill another student (on the Dark Side path).  
  
That’s what Bastila’s enduring. Pure blasts of undiluted fuck-you on her (and considering in the comics that Malak was tortured by a Mandalorian mad scientist, one could say he was in her position too, once upon a time. Not that that justifies anything he does), which could have potentially killed her, and is being used in an attempt to turn her to the Dark Side. And all the while, even though she’s clearly in pain, she’s not begging for mercy. She’s not crying. (Both would be justified, mind you) Instead, Bastila looks Malak in the eye and outright calls him a fool for thinking that torture will sway her to his side. Even Bastila implies in her dialogue on the Temple summit that it took a long while before Malak managed to sway her to his side (we don’t really know the timeline of how long she was tortured, but it was most likely a long time, especially since a lot of it goes on — if we do the math — during the Korriban Star Map), and it was mostly because Malak decided to go for psychological manipulation instead, persuading her that the Council was just using her as a pawn. Even Jolee Bindo says, “Malak preyed upon her weaknesses.” There’s an added level of holy-shit considering that if you play as a male character or a female with mods (if you play as female without mods, Carth gets tortured instead. It says volumes about what a sadist Saul is when he’s willing to torture his former protégé, as Carth basically puts it, _for fun._ ), Bastila has some additional hell to go through before what Malak does to her — she gets electrically tortured by Saul Karath, who Carth used to look up to. Basically, Saul tortures her every time you refuse to answer a question (and he already knows the answers, so he’s literally just doing it for shits and giggles), and even though she does understandably scream and plead and even admit later she was almost ready for anything so the pain could stop...she holds firm, even telling the player character that her pain is a minor price to pay compared to selling out the Order. (Of course, she doesn’t know that Saul already knows)  
  
Strength isn’t being impervious or unaffected by pain, literal or figurative. Strength is defined, the way I see it, by being put through varying degrees of shit and getting back up again. Strength doesn’t mean not being vulnerable; strength just means that the fact you’re able to stand up at all is a miracle, no matter when you do it. And Bastila is strong. You don’t have to give her a lightsaber to make her strong, though her lightsaber is pretty awesome. The core of her strength is having a steely will that’s difficult to chip away at. Someone who believes in what she’s doing and is willing to fight for it.   
  
And Bastila’s resistance techniques are pretty impressive. There’s one scene earlier in the game, in her first proper appearance, where she manages to resist a neural disruptor (which is I assume what it suggests) to break out and protect the player character. In a way, she is right when she says she saved you. You might have gotten into this in the first place to save her, but who exactly broke out of her cage and proceeded to beat up the people who imprisoned her without her lightsaber, assisting you in taking them down? Bastila. (And given how valuable a lightsaber is to a Jedi, that’s no mean feat) True, she does come off as arrogant later in her first appearance, but she is willing to apologize when she feels she’s been rude, and given everything I listed, she can back up her assertions. Both traits make her cockiness oddly lovable. (And there is a bit of a double standard: guys are expected to be cocky and competent, but not women, curiously enough) Part of it is also due to how the Jedi Council raised her, in a way; Bastila does talk about how they talked up her abilities in the Force (specifically Battle Meditation, which is also why Malak’s hunting Bastila in the first place; he wants her to win the war) until she got sick of it/felt the pressure on her to succeed. (I confess that I can see parallels between me and her in that regard; being told that I am talented and smart, but not feeling it)  
  
It pays off later in the game — when the player character is battling Malak, Bastila manages to break out of her stasis field to duel Malak, long enough for the player character and Carth to escape Malak’s ship, _The Leviathan._ The fact that she managed to do that is quite impressive (even if stasis fields are portrayed differently in KOTOR than in the Sequel Trilogy), and keep in mind, in both cases discussed, she does that if only because you’re in danger. From what you see before the door closes, Bastila also manages to hold her own against Malak, long enough for you and Carth to get to safety. It’s made doubly powerful considering that the player character is an amnesiac Sith Lord. Even if you play the path where you’re the most evil of Sith Lords, Bastila is still willing to throw herself in Malak’s path to protect you.   
  
If anything, a lot of Bastila’s courage and loyalty (before her brief moment of being broken into being Malak’s apprentice) are overlooked by a lot of players, who just see her as a wet blanket or a hypocrite. But they are there. And in a way, playing the male path isn’t that anti-feminist (it is actually ironic that quite a few of Bastila’s detractors play as a female PC. While that doesn’t automatically mean that, and disliking a female character isn’t automatically sexist, the way that the dislike of Bastila leaks into fanfiction does reek — in my humble opinion — of pitting women against each other); indeed, who saves the male PC on Taris? Bastila. Who essentially acts as a mentor towards him? Bastila. Who saves him on the Leviathan? Bastila. It does seem to be a sort of reverse of the typical save-the-damsel story; indeed, Bastila saves herself on Taris. The male PC just helps her clean house. And even the Star Forge is less a save-the-damsel story and more about repaying a favor to the woman who rescued you after Malak fired on your ship and left you for dead. Even after everything you did as Revan, Bastila was still willing to believe that you were worth saving. The fact that she falls in love with you (as a male, or a female with mods) really is just a bonus to her story; she isn’t just a Satellite Love Interest or the damsel.   
  
In the end, Bastila’s turn to the Dark Side (and if you choose the Light Side path, her redemption) is very powerful and well-written. She stayed her own character, she got to show the most beautiful things about her (her courage, her faith, her loyalty, her devotion to Jedi ideas before Malak manipulates her) as well as the worse things about her, she had a Redeeming The Villain plot that still kept her identity intact, and the romance was more of a bonus to her story (especially since you can also redeem her through friendship) instead of the defining element. And this was in 2003. If BioWare could write a compelling tritagonist, we can write good female characters of all stripes.


End file.
